School starts this week, and that occurrence brings to mind something of a breakthrough at our house. For the first time since, oh, about 1842, we aren’t homeschooling any kids.
This, in turn, brings to mind another thought: YAHOO!
My wife, Patti, and I love our kids, and we really love teaching them the wonderful things life has to offer. We started homeschooling our kids when our oldest son, Paul, was in second grade. We lived in rural Minnesota, and the bus ride to school and back took 1½ hours a day. During the course of a week, he was stuck on a bus 7½ hours. It was as though he was spending an extra day every week locked on the bus.
That, plus the fact that my wife was a certified teacher and we soon put two and two together and figured out homeschooling might be worth a try.
Back in those days, homeschooling was not terribly popular, or accepted, especially among other parents. Whenever we’d mention that we homeschooled our kids, the typical reaction was about the same as if we had three eyes and had moved to Minnesota from the planet Moron.
“You pay taxes to send those kids to school,” we’d be lectured. “Why not take advantage of that?”
We’d then explain the daily bus trip, and most folks would at least understand where we were coming from.
We signed up with a correspondence school, which mailed us books, workbooks, class schedules — everything we needed. The school also graded their assignments and offered resource teachers to call when we hit a roadblock.
“Paul isn’t learning his times tables,” I complained to one of the teachers once. “I think he’s just being stubborn.”
“Be patient,” she said. “He’s just a little boy. He’ll learn them eventually.”
And she was right.
We also homeschooled our other three sons, Peter, John and Mark. Then, as Paul and Peter reached high school age, they wanted to go to school, so we let them. They enjoyed having kids their own age around.
When John was in sixth grade, he seemed ready to dive into school. He took to it like a fish to water and is now in eighth grade. Now Mark, our youngest, is ready for sixth grade and looking forward to going to school, following in the tracks of his older brothers.
This, of course, means that, during the day at least, we’ll be “empty-nesters.” Patti can do pretty much whatever she wants during the day for the first time in 13 years.
We have friends who, on the first day of school, would drop their kids off at school and then head to a house and have a party to celebrate their freedom from chasing kids around all day.
This year, the party’s at our house.
